Homing

Artist Sue Webster built a career and a home by refusing to fit in — it’s why she identifies with the Mole Man so much. She found fame alongside her husband Tim Noble, as part of the post-YBA generation — their anarchic self-portraits, made from found objects and discarded rubbish, made them the “rock stars” of British art. Together they built the Dirty House in Shoreditch, which helped define the area as the epicentre of London's art scene.More recently, Sue has created an equally radical home for herself: the Mole House in Hackney, built on top of the tunnels where the so-called Mole Man spent forty years digging underground. Where some saw an oddity, Sue saw something worth preserving. The house is a love letter to eccentricity, and a rare pocket of creative chaos in an increasingly polished city.From growing up in a caravan in Leicester to carving out a place in the art world and becoming a mother at 52, Sue’s story is one of fierce independence and how to live a life that is truly authentic to yourself.Sue's first solo exhibition, Birth of an Icon, is on show at Firstsite in Colchester.A full tour of The Mole House is available to members on Patreon: http://patreon.com/HomingWithMattTo hear more from us:YouTube: Subscribe to our channel, Homing with Matt, to watch the video versionInstagram: @homingwithmattContact: Email us at hello@mattgibberd.comMatt Gibberd’s book, A Modern Way to Live, is available here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/320176/a-modern-way-to-live-by-gibberd-matt/9780241480496Music by @simeonwalkermusicIdentity & design by @lena.winkler.creative.office Produced by @podshoponlineThe full video home tour is available to members on Patreon:http://patreon.com/HomingWithMatt ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

For fashion designer turned ceramicist Henry Holland, reinvention isn't about starting over – it's about evolving on your own terms.Henry first made his name with the cult fashion label House of Holland, famous for cheeky slogans like 'Do Me Daily Christopher Bailey' and 'Let's Breed Bella Hadid'. But in recent years, he has pivoted to making homewares and contemporary ceramics, using the Japanese technique of nerikomi.With his East London house currently being refurbished from top to bottom, Henry is living in a home of two halves. It’s the perfect metaphor for this transitional stage of his life.His parents separated when he was young, and he split his time between the two households. One was ordered and structured, while the other was more creative. It’s clear that he lives his life today with the influence of both.There’s the playful version of him that we’ve seen pictured at parties. But there’s also a deeply determined side that’s about proving people wrong, which partly stems from the bullying he experienced when he was young. Henry is not afraid to reveal his sensitivities, opening up about everything from panic attacks and imposter syndrome to the disappointment he felt when his fashion brand closed down in 2020. This is a conversation about reinvention, resilience and the tension between who we’ve been and who we’re becoming.This episode was recorded inside Henry’s home in East London.A full tour of the house is available to our Patreon community.Patreon: http://patreon.com/HomingWithMattTo hear more from us:YouTube: Subscribe to our channel, Homing with Matt, to watch the video versionInstagram: @homingwithmattContact: Email us at hello@mattgibberd.comMatt Gibberd’s book, A Modern Way to Live, is available here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/320176/a-modern-way-to-live-by-gibberd-matt/9780241480496Music by @simeonwalkermusicIdentity & design by @lena.winkler.creative.office Produced by @podshoponlineThe full visualised home tour is available to our Patreon community.Patreon: http://patreon.com/HomingWithMatt ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Beyond the whirlwind of galleries and exhibitions, Tate Director Maria Balshaw's home holds the quieter, deeply personal moments of her life.Growing up in Northampton, she longed to escape her characterless new-build house and nurtured a desire to be different. Her current home in Kent is a reflection of that creative rebellion, with medieval beams at its centre, classical sash windows on one side and Crittalls on the other.Maria grows vegetables in her garden year-round, swims in the sea nearby, and measures time by what’s coming into flower – a way to be at one with nature and shed the stress of an urban working week. Her mother spent her final months in this house, sitting on the terrace in the sun, watching buzzards circle the valley, convinced one of them was her late husband waiting for her. At the end of March, Maria is stepping down from her position at the Tate after nine years, signing off with a major Tracey Emin exhibition. She knows exactly where she’ll be the following morning: in the garden, in her wellies, at the start of the growing season. This is a conversation about movement and rootedness – and about what it means to build a home that can hold both.This episode was recorded inside Maria’s home in Kent.A full tour of the home and garden is available to our Patreon community.Patreon: http://patreon.com/HomingWithMattTo hear more from us:YouTube: Subscribe to our channel, Homing with Matt, to watch the video versionInstagram: @homingwithmattContact: Email us at hello@mattgibberd.comMatt Gibberd’s book, A Modern Way to Live, is available here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/320176/a-modern-way-to-live-by-gibberd-matt/9780241480496Music by @simeonwalkermusicIdentity & design by @lena.winkler.creative.office Produced by @podshoponlineThe full visualised home tour is available to our Patreon community.Patreon: http://patreon.com/HomingWithMatt ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith has spent most of his life on the same plot of land, tending its gardens and letting the land shape him in return. Tom has designed gardens at places like Chatsworth, Tate Britain and The Hepworth Wakefield. He’s won nine gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show, and was awarded an OBE in 2023. But long before any of that, he was a child roaming Serge Hill in Hertfordshire, the estate his grandfather bought decades ago. Tom spent his childhood climbing its trees and staging Shakespeare plays. And apart from a brief spell away, he’s lived just 200 yards from his childhood home for almost his entire life. Tom’s wife, Sue Stuart-Smith, is a psychotherapist and author of the book The Well Gardened Mind. Together, they created the Serge Hill Project – a part of the estate where community groups, schoolchildren, young offenders and people recovering from illness can get hands-on with the soil and experience the uplifting power of nature.This is a conversation about landscapes, legacy and what it really means to stay rooted in one place.The episode was recorded at The Apple House, a modern pavilion on the estate designed by their son Ben.A full tour of the building and its surroundings is available to our Patreon community.Patreon: http://patreon.com/HomingWithMattTo hear more from us:YouTube: Subscribe to our channel, Homing with Matt, to watch the video versionInstagram: @homingwithmattTikTok: @homing.with.mattContact: Email us at hello@mattgibberd.comMatt Gibberd’s book, A Modern Way to Live, is available here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/320176/a-modern-way-to-live-by-gibberd-matt/9780241480496Music by @simeonwalkermusicIdentity & design by @lena.winkler.creative.office Produced by @podshoponlineThe full visualised tour of Tom’s estate is available to our Patreon community.Patreon: http://patreon.com/HomingWithMatt ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Author and podcaster Elizabeth Day spent years chasing a vision of the ‘perfect’ home life, only to discover that reality can look very different.She grew up in the Northern Irish countryside, in a home that was physically safe but shadowed by unrest in the wider community. Childhood fears of monsters under the bed were replaced by the reality of masked terrorists, which has made the concept of home as a place of safety so central to her life today.In the high-pressure early years of her journalism career at The Evening Standard, Elizabeth sought to create peaceful, restorative spaces – first in her own apartments, and later in the relationships she invested in.Her path has also been marked by profound challenges: the unexpected breakdown of her first marriage and a 12-year fertility journey that ultimately ended in disappointment. As a high achiever with a clear picture of her life goals, learning to navigate what she describes as “failure” has been far from straightforward.She describes her life in more recent years as “a dismantling of that and a recovery of who I was at four.” Her current home and her loving marriage to Justin are built upon the lessons she learned from these experiences. Elizabeth describes finding her home as a moment of fate, as if the universe delivered exactly what she needed. This episode looks at how perfectionism can take us away from ourselves, and how love and self-compassion can help us feel at home again.The episode was recorded in Elizabeth’s house in South London.A full house tour is available to our Patreon community.Patreon: http://patreon.com/HomingWithMattElizabeth’s new novel, One of Us, is published by 4th Estate and available to purchase in hardback here. You can also preorder a copy of the paperback out (21 May) here.To hear more from us:YouTube: Subscribe to our channel, Homing with Matt, to watch the video versionInstagram: @homingwithmattTikTok: @homing.with.mattContact: Email us at hello@mattgibberd.comMatt Gibberd’s book, A Modern Way to Live, is available here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/320176/a-modern-way-to-live-by-gibberd-matt/9780241480496Music by @simeonwalkermusicIdentity & design by @lena.winkler.creative.office Produced by @podshoponlineThe full visualised studio tour is available to our Patreon community.Patreon: http://patreon.com/HomingWithMatt ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

For interior designer and art curator Natasha Landers, home is where the public and private worlds meet. Her Walthamstow house is a curated gallery, where Black art is not just displayed, but lives among her daily life.Natasha grew up in a Hackney council house, sharing a bedroom with her brother in a home where space was tight, but imagination wasn’t. From an early age, she found ways to express herself – decorating her bedroom and reworking her clothes. She was the first in her family to go to university, leaving the noise of East London for the stillness of the Welsh valleys. The silence was unsettling. No traffic. No sirens. Just the realisation that home isn’t only about place – it’s about what your body recognises as safe. Today, Natasha is a diversity consultant, working in boardrooms where she's often the only Black person in the room. Spaces where she’s learned to hold her ground – and gently challenge how others see the world. Her home has become part of that work, and she opens it up as an exhibition space for Black artists. She’s lived there for 26 years, shaping it slowly and conscientiously. A roll-top bath once sat in the living room for two years, waiting for the moment it could finally be installed.It’s also a home that knows how to slow down. After years of people-pleasing and burnout, Natasha has learned to honour rest – and to find pleasure in small, everyday rituals. This is an episode about patience, knowing when to perform and when to stop, and how a home shaped over time can become a place where you’re finally allowed to just be. The episode was recorded at Natasha’s home in Walthamstow.A full tour of the house and art collection is available to our Patreon community.Patreon: http://patreon.com/HomingWithMattTo hear more from us:YouTube: Subscribe to our channel, Homing with Matt, to watch the video versionInstagram: @homingwithmattTikTok: @homing.with.mattContact: Email us at hello@mattgibberd.comMatt Gibberd’s book, A Modern Way to Live, is available here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/320176/a-modern-way-to-live-by-gibberd-matt/9780241480496Music by @simeonwalkermusicIdentity & design by @lena.winkler.creative.office Produced by @podshoponlineThe full visualised home tour is available to our Patreon community.Patreon: http://patreon.com/HomingWithMatt ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

For homewares designer Matilda Goad, balance isn’t just a design principle – it’s a way of living. Her home is a reflection of that: comfortable and familiar, but full of playful touches.Growing up in a country cottage, boredom became a lesson in invention. With her grandfather an artist and her mother a fashion designer, Matilda was surrounded by creativity from an early age and developed a strong drive to prove herself.That ambition runs through everything she does. From designing her iconic scallop-edged lampshade to opening a new hardware store off the Pimlico Road, Matilda has a talent for taking the functional and adding a playful twist. Her home in London is an extension of her visual identity and the backdrop to some of life’s most significant moments. Both of her children were born at home – one in the sitting room, the other in the bedroom. For Matilda, home is psychological safety: a place that can hold everything.We talk about sensitivity to environments, using anxiety as fuel, and the discipline required to sustain creative drive. She shares practical rituals to reset, from breathwork exercises to lighting techniques, and the realities of building a business slowly and organically.This episode is about purpose, momentum and how our homes mirror the lives we’re building.– MattAn extended version of the tour is available to our Patreon community.Patreon: http://patreon.com/HomingWithMattTo hear more from us:YouTube: Subscribe to our channel, Homing with Matt, to watch the video versionInstagram: @homingwithmattTikTok: @homing.with.mattContact: Email us at hello@mattgibberd.comMatt Gibberd’s book, A Modern Way to Live, is available here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/320176/a-modern-way-to-live-by-gibberd-matt/9780241480496Music by @simeonwalkermusicIdentity & design by @lena.winkler.creative.office Produced by @podshoponlineThe full visualised home tour is available to our Patreon community.Patreon: http://patreon.com/HomingWithMatt ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Max Rollitt is a highly respected interior decorator and antiques dealer. Extraordinary pieces pass through his hands every day, yet most of the objects he chooses to live with at home have little monetary value. Instead, they are tokens of respect and love.The conversation begins with Max’s childhood in Winchester, where he struggled at school because he processed information in images – something we’d now recognise as dyslexia. It’s this visual approach that is the foundation for a ‘Max Rollitt’ interior: decorating a home the way an artist composes a painting.Nowhere is that sensibility clearer than in his family farmhouse in the South Downs. Every piece of furniture and object has a story to tell: artworks from his sons, photographs of his wife, and handmade gifts from his mentors. During our private home tour, some of these objects even moved Max to tears. We also talk about how to create a nurturing environment for creative children, the grounding effect of rural life and finding personal fulfilment through spirituality.This episode is about how the objects we surround ourselves with are more than aesthetic items – they are containers for people and experiences.This episode was recorded in person at Max’s farmhouse in the South Downs.– MattAn extended version of the tour is available to our Patreon community.Patreon: http://patreon.com/HomingWithMattTo hear more from us:YouTube: Subscribe to our channel, Homing with Matt, to watch the video versionInstagram: @homingwithmattTikTok: @homing.with.mattContact: Email us at hello@mattgibberd.comMatt Gibberd’s book, A Modern Way to Live, is available here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/320176/a-modern-way-to-live-by-gibberd-matt/9780241480496Music by @simeonwalkermusicIdentity & design by @lena.winkler.creative.office Produced by @podshoponline ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Chris Packham has always fascinated me. As a broadcaster, naturalist, and conservationist, he’s helped millions connect with wildlife and the natural world through shows like BBC’s Springwatch – but sitting down with him in his home, I realised how much of his story is about creating refuge, both at home and within himself.In this deeply personal conversation, Chris speaks candidly about his childhood in Southampton, being diagnosed with autism in his forties, and how he has designed a home that helps him manage sensory sensitivities – ironically filled with furniture and artwork that is deliberately uncomfortable.He reflects on solitude versus loneliness and how nature provides safety, structure and healing when the human world feels overwhelming.It’s a conversation about finding comfort in discomfort, about refuge and resilience, and, above all, about what it means to feel at home in the world.It’s also one of the most memorable episodes I’ve ever recorded. This episode was recorded in person at Chris' home in the New Forest.To hear more from us:YouTube: Subscribe to our channel Homing with Matt, to watch the video versionInstagram: @homingwithmattTikTok: @homing.with.mattContact: Email us at hello@mattgibberd.comFor more content and exclusive walking tours:Patreon: http://patreon.com/HomingWithMattMatt Gibberd’s book, A Modern Way to Live, is available here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/320176/a-modern-way-to-live-by-gibberd-matt/9780241480496 ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Bethan designs everything from furniture to lighting and textiles, and some of her work is currently on display at the Design Museum in London. She presents herself to the world like a human peacock. She dyes her hair different colours, wears layers of vivid clothing, and puts dots on her cheeks. Her flat in east London isn’t exactly demure either. We recorded this podcast in the company of various hats and handbags, a jar of balloons in liquid, and a lamp shaped like a jellyfish. In this conversation, we dig into the differences between collecting and hoarding. The objects Bethan lives with are like a cast of characters in a film. The way she arranges them isn’t just about what looks good together; she’s also thinking about the stories they tell. Going back to her childhood, she tells me about dressing like “a 1950s cool dinner lady”, and how watching TV inspired her to apply for the Royal College of Art. We talk about the impact of bullying, and how she’s been shaped by her dyslexia. She’s a fascinating character, and I really enjoyed getting to know her better. For more:PLATFORM: Bethan Laura WoodSubscribe to The Modern House newsletter for weekly interiors inspirationPick up a copy of Matt Gibberd’s latest book, A Modern Way To LiveFollow Matt Gibberd on InstagramFollow The Modern House InstagramWatch our Homing In films on YouTubeProducer: Laconic CollectiveGraphic Design: Ben TuckerMusic: Simeon Walker Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Christopher was President of the Royal Academy for eight years and given a knighthood in 2021. I first met him a few years ago, when The Modern House was selling his beautiful home in Camberwell. Shortly after that, he had a joint exhibition in Los Angeles with my wife, Faye Toogood, so I got to know him better during the week we were out there together. This podcast gave me the chance to go a bit deeper, and I really enjoyed finding out more about his life. Despite always finding himself in positions of authority, Christopher paints a picture of a naturally shy and introspective character. He and his wife, Charlotte Verity, moved out to Somerset a couple of years ago, and we had a snoop around their studios before sitting down to record this podcast in their lovely Georgian farmhouse. Christopher gives me a fascinating insight into what it's like to be a professional painter: from the importance of the space he's working in, to the rituals he goes through and what he's thinking about. He tells me about what it's like to live with another artist – how they need to give each other space, and how they critique each other's work. And we discuss the important houses in his life, notably the Victorian villa that he extended with the help of the architect Jamie Fobert. I've got a huge amount of respect for Christopher, and I found this conversation so fascinating. I hope you enjoy it too.For more:Subscribe to The Modern House newsletter for weekly interiors inspirationPick up a copy of Matt Gibberd’s latest book, A Modern Way To LiveFollow Matt Gibberd on InstagramFollow The Modern House InstagramWatch our Homing In films on YouTubeProducer: Laconic CollectiveGraphic Design: Ben TuckerMusic: Simeon Walker Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nigel is the first podcast guest ever to make me cry. I'm a big fan of his writing, and suspected he'd be a kindred spirit, but spending the day with him in his house was an overwhelming experience I wasn't prepared for.He lives around the corner from where I grew up, in a pared-back way that feels very familiar. In this remarkably honest conversation, he outlines the essential role his home plays in keeping him on an even keel. We discuss what it's like to suffer from panic attacks, and how they're triggered by the built environment. He tells me that whenever he arrives in a building he hasn't been to before, the first thing he does is check where the exit is so that he can plan his escape. We touch on the childhood trauma that he wrote about in his brilliant memoir, Toast, from his mother's death to his father's bullying. We discuss the roots of his lifelong interest in gardening, why he keeps a daily diary, and the importance of smell within the home. This is a conversation I'll remember forever. Thank you, Nigel. This episode was recorded in person at Nigel's home in London.For more:Pick up a copy of Nigel Slater's latest book, A Thousand Feasts: Small Moments of Joy … a Memoir of SortsFind out more about Nigel's collaboration with Perfumer HSubscribe to The Modern House newsletter for weekly interiors inspirationPick up a copy of Matt Gibberd’s latest book, A Modern Way To LiveFollow Matt Gibberd on InstagramFollow The Modern House InstagramWatch our Homing In films on YouTubeProducer: Laconic CollectiveGraphic Design: Ben TuckerMusic: Simeon WalkerThis episode is sponsored by Vitsoe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.